‘ERRING ZRA OFFICERS WILL BE ARRESTED’

THE

Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has adopted a new approach of reporting its erring officers to law enforcement agencies to curb rising cases of smuggling.

Smuggling was being facilitated by officers, says ZRA Commissioner General, Kingsley Chanda.

Mr Chanda said ZRA would report any of its officers to involved in illegalities such as smuggling to the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the police.

“We are also aware, and let me be honest here, that these smuggling activities, in fact most of them, are facilitated by our officers.

“We recently reported three of our own officers to ACC and they have since been arrested, so this will continue. I want to warn our own officers that this will not be tolerated going forward,” he told reporters in Lusaka yesterday.

Mr Chanda said ZRA had noticed that importers had taken advantage of Government’s desperation for revenue which has decreased because of Covid-19.

During the period, he explained, importations had slowed down, thereby negatively impacting revenue collection.

He said there had been situations where consignments were being declared as items to fight Covid-19 as well as declarations purporting to be for Government.

Mr Chanda said he had therefore immediately instructed the Commissioner - Customs and the enforcement teams to go back to the 2019 philosophy where both goods and vessels used for smuggling were seized and forfeited. He warned that ZRA would not tolerate any smuggling as it was unacceptable and depressing.